The royals - Kitty Kelley [179]
During a prewedding party for her brother at Althorp, Diana watched Raine go into the nursery and graciously pour tea for her husband’s grandchildren. When Raine left the room and headed for the grand staircase, Diana followed her. As Raine started down the first flight of stairs, Diana lunged forward and knocked her over with her shoulder. The fifty-eight-year-old woman fell to her knees and tumbled down the steps, coming to a stop on the first landing. Diana walked around her and, without a word, proceeded into the party.
The assault alarmed the Countess’s personal assistant, Sue Ingram. “I wanted to run upstairs and ask Her Ladyship if she was all right, but I was too embarrassed, not only for myself, but for her,” she said. “The servants and I pretended that nothing had happened—we just looked away.”
Later Raine mentioned the outburst to her assistant. “What has happened to Diana?” she asked. “Why such an occurrence? I just don’t understand that girl.”
Beset by her eating disorder and her husband’s infidelity, Diana was volcanic and erupted frequently. After another of their incessant fights, Charles found her in tears in her bedroom, pouring out her heart to her detective about Charles’s late night telephone calls to Camilla Parker Bowles and his unexplained absences. Charles was appalled by her lack of discretion.
Within days the detective, who had guarded the Princess for a year, was suddenly transferred into the Diplomatic Unit. A member of the Prince’s staff told a reporter that the abrupt change was due to the sergeant’s “overfamiliarity” with the Princess.
“He’s just punishing me,” Diana told friends bitterly.
“I was transferred for domestic reasons,” Mannakee admitted to the press, “but I have no intentions of discussing those reasons.”
The Prince, who was polite but aloof with his servants, did not approve of his wife’s familiarity with the help. He maintained a certain distance from the staff and expected her to do the same. But she treated her dresser, her detective, and her butler like extended family.
“Do not misinterpret the Prince’s demeanor,” said one of his equerries. “There’s a seemly remove about him that comes from being reared as royalty.”
Diana, who did not possess that royal remove, embraced servants like friends. She thought nothing of eating in the staff kitchen, where her first question upon arrival at Sandringham, Balmoral, or Buckingham Palace was usually, “What’s for dinner?” She attended staff parties, brought records, and asked the servants to dance with her. Her husband rarely attended these employee get-togethers because he knew his presence would impose undue formality. Still, he regarded his wife’s behavior as highly improper.
Her indiscriminate displays of affection also irked him. He said that she kissed everyone she met, even strangers. She did not discriminate between highway workers and heads of state. At polo games she kissed Major Ron Ferguson to say hello. After the royal wedding she kissed the Lord High Chamberlain to say thank you. On the honeymoon she kissed the President of Egypt, Anwar al-Sadat, to say good-bye. In New Zealand she rubbed noses with a Maori tribeswoman. When she returned home she kissed her servants.
When the royal family attended a grand ball at Buckingham Palace for the household staff, Diana circled the room in her tiara to greet everyone. She understood how much her title meant and how special people felt being in her presence. “I could see Charles watching her out of the corner of his eye,” recalled Wendy Berry, who worked at Highgrove. “He looked on as she took the mother of one servant in her arms and kissed her expansively on the cheeks. Charles’s expression was one of horror mixed with fascination that any wife